A few days had passed since Harry had used The Resurrection Stone, yet each one seemed to go by at a cruelly slow pace, giving Harry many hours a day in which he craved to have more things to do. He had taken up reading every newspaper article and book dedicated to talking about the current and past life of Gellert Grindelwald, but that and Legilimency alone wasn't enough to keep him busy for every waking hour of the day.
He could have taken up more subjects to read about, but he couldn't think of anything interesting to study. He only read about his current out of school subjects because he had to. At times Harry worried if perhaps it was only things relating to the Dark Arts that interested him… but he constantly dismissed that foolish thought, knowing that he had never enjoyed reading anyway. He just had to find subjects urgent and important enough to shock his brain into being interested.
It was early afternoon as Harry made his way reluctantly down to the Slytherin Common Room. He hoped, as he always did, that Riddle would be busy in some other part of the castle, perhaps talking to the Astronomy teacher about homework, or else doing something vaguely along those lines. Even though Tom was the only other Slytherin besides Harry who had decided to stay over the winter holidays, Harry rarely had the Common Room to himself. It would be easier for him to endure the slow paced Christmas holidays if only he could daydream in the deserted Common Room when he wasn't reading.
Any of the other Death Eaters would be a relief in exchange for Riddle. Harry knew well that they too would have had hundreds of questions, or else would have wanted nothing less than to play card games endlessly, but that was better than having a constant reminder of Voldemort for Harry. A reminder who, furthermore, asked questions with nonexistent answers, questions that were mislead… yet having Riddle convinced that he had cracked a close to impossible mystery was a great consolation. Harry no longer had to endure being suspected as a lair so very persistently. He merely had to lie more often.
As Harry entered the Common Room, he saw Riddle sitting at his usual table, reading a book by the fireplace. Harry was vaguely temped to turn away from the other Slytherin and leave, but he knew that Riddle had probably already heard him. Not to mention he wasn't supposed to hate Tom anymore. Harry was glad, suddenly, that he had been reading so much Legilimency as of late…
"Hello, Jonathan." Said Riddle pleasantly, looking up from his book only as Harry sat down opposite the other boy. Tom hadn't yet asked Harry what his real name was, so Harry guessed (or at least hoped) that Riddle and himself were still not intimate enough for such questions to come up. Harry was merely a follower, so knowing about his secrets seemed like enough to satisfy Riddle for the moment. Perhaps he already knew Harry's real name, even, and was reserving the knowledge in the act of proving that he wasn't going to talk about anything he had discovered. Harry wasn't really bothered to discover an answer.
"Hello, Tom." Harry replied, seeing that the taller boy was holding another ancient volume on the Dark Arts. Harry wondered how Riddle hadn't read everything about the Dark Arts there was to read in the library already, for he definitely read faster than Harry did, and almost as often. Yet perhaps Riddle could convince the librarian, if not the teachers, to let him into the restricted section when he pleased.
"I'm glad that you came back to the Common Room early," Riddle said, surveying Harry delicately, as he always did. "I have a question for you."
Harry was glad to see that these words didn't make him nervous, for once. He was more confident with his lies and stories. "Do you?"
"Yes. I was wondering what you might be able to tell me concerning how much you know about the Dark Arts?" Tom's tone was as light as ever, but Harry thought he heard a note of burning curiosity behind his mask of impassiveness. "It's merely that I want to understand how much you know already about the subject. It wouldn't do well to continue going over what you already know…"
"Oh…" Harry said, trying to decide upon the ratio of truth and lies. "Well, I only really learnt the basics, then things like Legilimency, Occlumency and Parseltongue, which obviously took quite a while for me to learn."
"I would have assumed that you were past the basics…" Riddle frowned, but he looked content with this answer. "Yet I suppose this is a good thing. It means you have a lot of potential in advancing some of the pieces of knowledge that even my strongest of friends have had some trouble with."
Harry was a little annoyed with these words. He shouldn't have any potential in being able to learn a lot about the Dark Arts… he shouldn't be good at any of this. He hated the whole subject, and was refusing to believe that he had any sort of power worthy of becoming a Dark Wizard…
He wondered, then, whether Riddle had been worrying about him knowing everything about Dark Magic – more than even Tom knew. The idea was foolish in Harry's mind, but not completely impossible, had he really been raised by a force going against the wishes of Gellert Grindelwald. Tom continued talking past Harry's silence, and the later listened.
"Can you tell me more about the ways in which you have put the Dark Arts to use out of school life?" Tom asked carefully. "I know that I cannot conceal the fact that though my friends and I know a lot about the subject, it is rare that we get into situations important enough to use our full skills, so I'd naturally like to know what you have done… Did you use the Unforgivable Curses before you came to Hogwarts, for instance?"
Harry thought about this for a second, searching for memories of his own experience with the Dark Arts whilst trying to work out what would be a normal amount of information to give. "Yeah, I've used the Unforgivable Curses. But not when I could help it. They're more of a, er, fallback for me… There are better pieces of magic. Less obvious or illegal ones."
Tom smiled faintly at this, knowing more than anyone else about what context was preferable for the Unforgivables. "You seemed shocked with your own use of the Cruciatus Curse." He commented.
"I've never used it on someone who I don't have a personal problem with." Said Harry quickly, yet calmly. "I was never… brought up to use it against people who haven't harmed anyone, or who don't really deserve it."
Riddle seemed to understand this explanation, which Harry was relieved to see. "What of the Imperious Curse?" He asked.
"I don't mind that curse." Harry admitted. "It's really useful when you want to force someone to do something without it being traced back to you. It's simple, but very effective." Out of all of the Unforgivable Curses, the Imperious Curse was the easiest to accept for Harry. He thought of it as the best way to die, when only thinking of those three curses. At least it would be a blissfully calm event…
"And the Killing Curse?" Tom asked.
As Harry looked at the other boy for a minute. He thought he could see the same odd form of hunger in his eyes, and he reflected that it only seemed to be in accordance to talk of power, ability and skill that Tom had that look. Harry could barely believe that the other boy was so obsessed with power… yet it wasn't surprising, him being Voldemort and all. Harry thought back to the question he was supposed to be answering. "I've never had to use the Killing Curse… not yet anyway."
Riddle smiled as if he had expected Harry to give that answer, but as Harry watched, it appeared that Tom held a slight look of disappointment in his nearly impassive eyes. Harry wondered whether Tom had been hoping that it wasn't only him who was twisted enough to commit murder so early in life. Harry was glad to know that he was stronger than Tom in senses of morality, even if Tom might take this to mean he was weaker in power.
"Have you even used the unforgivable Curses outside of Hogwarts?" Harry asked, vaguely keen to hear what Riddle might answer to such a direct question. He would never ask this normally, but since they were already on the subject, it only seemed fair.
"No." Riddle lied. "For although I came of the age to use magic outside of school last year, I stayed at Hogwarts over the summer. I've never had the chance."
Harry wasn't sure why, but it was always slightly amusing for him to watch Riddle lie so simply. It almost made him feel less alone when he watched another cover up their true past with the simple use of correct words and impassive faces. He wondered if Riddle ever became nervous about such questions, as Harry often did. Even if Harry could never actually see the hidden emotions of the other boy, he knew that Tom must feel something. Riddle would later reflect upon the memories normal people would see now, Harry knew, as Tom was likely to be using Occlumency at this time, thus delaying and blocking all thought. Harry had nodded at the beginning of the silence that fell after Tom's words, so he waited patiently for Riddle to speak again.
"Well, that's about all I wanted to ask." Tom said. He stood up. "Since it's already eight O'clock, I believe I have to go and visit Professor Slughorn."
Harry was glad of this fact. "Oh, alright."
"I'll be back at around nine." Riddle said, placing the book he was reading upon a table where a lamp rested. "I daresay you'll be alright here… Unless you want to come?"
It wasn't unusual for Tom to visit Slughorn with a Death Eater for company – especially one already in the Slug Club – but Harry wasn't one to wish for any more time spent with the older Slytherin. "Er, no thanks." Harry replied. "I want to get some more reading done."
"Just as well." Riddle commented, unsurprised as he turned to go. "Goodbye, then."
"Bye." Harry echoed.
He waited for Tom to completely leave the Common Room before feeling relieved, and relaxing a little more where he sat. Now he had a little over an hour to do nothing but think, which always seemed to lead him somewhere, if only towards understanding a part of Legilimency better with time.
As Harry thought about it, he supposed that it would probably do him good to read up upon the theory of some more basics of the Dark Arts. It wouldn't do well on his part to be lacking knowledge in some obvious part of the subject. He felt as though luck had set him back on the right path with tricking Riddle, so he was determined to keep everything in order. As much as he hated the idea, he had to do it, to be safe. It wasn't that he liked the Dark Arts; it was merely that importance was indeed pushing this subject upon his path.
Harry sighed. He didn't know how he was able to keep up with the things that Riddle taught him. He never wanted to torture any of the other Death Eaters or learn how to cause smoke to surround a person in their more terrible memories, but he could still do it all. He just could, and that wasn't a good enough reason for him.
He contemplated whether he was supposed to be a Dark Wizard, somehow. Yet that didn't make sense when taking into consideration the fact that he hated to cause people pain. He felt sick with himself after every poisoning lesson with the Death Eaters. He felt as though he was a monster. It wasn't in a gesture of vain self-importance that he wondered why he was good at Dark Magic, either. He could never betray the memories of his true friends and family so much as to take pride in catching onto the skill so well. It made him worry. It was more of a curse upon him than a blessing. It was a mistake…
Harry withdrew his wand from his pocket, examining it. It almost always surprised him to see that he no longer held the Holly and Phoenix feather wand, but instead Draco's Hawthorn unicorn hair one. Harry contemplated, at times, whether this was the reason for his sudden success at the Dark Arts. Perhaps because Draco was born into such a dark family, and perhaps because this wand had doubtlessly preformed Dark Magic before, Harry was able to catch onto the subject…
It was a good wand… very good. Harry refused to accept the idea that it was perhaps even better than his Phoenix feather wand had been. His old wand was superior to any other wand Harry could know… he truly believed that. It was the wand that chooses the Wizard, so the Phoenix wand had to have been better, for Harry. Maybe Draco's wand was just good for the Dark Arts… yet could that have leaked into Harry being good in class, too?
Harry contemplated the history of the wand vaguely. A lot of bad things had followed it. It was with this that Draco fixed the vanishing cabinet in the room of requirement, which was the first true crime in Harry's mind; past all the petty tricks committed while Draco was a kid. This had been the cause of all the Death Eaters to swarm into the school that night, when Harry and Dumbledore had been away in search of the locket. Harry felt a stab of hatred mixed with sorrow as he thought of this…
Even though it had been on that night that Dumbledore died, it didn't feel that way to Harry. It felt to him as if Dumbledore had never truly died. He had always been on that portrait in the Headmaster's office, for one thing, ruling through Snape as he had always ruled though the people in power, whether they had been Dippet now or the Ministers of Magic to come in the current future. Even with Grindelwald, perhaps. Dumbledore had ruled through others…
He had never really died in Harry's mind, or at least not now. All those months spent camping with Ron and Hermione had made him feel as though his old headmaster had, really been purged from this earth, but after seeing the memories that Snape had left, and with visiting Dumbledore almost weekly now that Harry was back in school, Harry felt as though Dumbledore had returned from the dead… Just like another twisted wizard he had known…
Harry continued to look down at the wand in his hands. He thought of the moment when he and Dumbledore had landed on the top of the Astronomy Tower, a little while after Draco had released the Death Eaters into the school. Harry had believed that Dumbledore was mistaken about Snape, especially as Snape killed Dumbledore. Yet that had been just another lie. A plan.
But before that, Harry reminded himself. He was supposed to be thinking about Draco's wand… He wasn't sure why thinking about the history of this wand interested him, but it helped him waste time, so he did not care. Draco had overpowered Dumbledore so easily, merely because Dumbledore had wanted to freeze Harry. A heroic gesture, supposedly, but in the end an act of suicide.
Also, Harry remembered, a way to get rid of the Elder wand. Yet that hadn't worked… Voldemort still killed Snape in the Battle of Hogwarts. It was a wise plan, Harry was sure, to give Snape the wand without anyone noticing, elegantly passing on the power in hopes that his best spy would never be suspected. The greatest flaw of the plan, however, was that Voldemort was seeking the Elder Wand more than Dumbledore could guess, and knew that Snape had to be the rightful owner, having disarmed Dumbledore, and killed him…
But no, Draco had disarmed Dumbledore. Snape had merely killed him. Dumbledore had been defeated simply. What had he expected Harry to do had he not been invisible and immovable, Harry did not know. He probably knew that Harry would have saved him, being unaware of whom he really was. So Draco had set up the death of the greatest Wizard in all of history. Harry laughed quietly and humourlessly to himself. The wand that rested in his hands had defeated the Elder Wand because of an old fool's fragile plans…
Harry paused… Draco had disarmed Dumbledore. Draco had set up the death. He had overruled the Elder Wand… Did that make Draco the master of the Elder wand? No… No, that was impossible… Snape had killed Dumbledore. Snape was the owner…
Yet Voldemort had believed that simply stealing the wand from Dumbledore's grave would work. He had believed that setting Nagini upon Snape would make him the master of the Elder Wand, so the rules of the Elder Wand were evidently complex… Harry's mind raced over the possibilities.
It was supposed to be the easiest Deathly Hallow to trace, and it had managed to never be hidden or lost even after all these years. There had to have been wizards unknowingly bequeathed this Deathly Hallow, or else the existence of the wand could be buried away as easily as Dumbledore had perhaps wanted, inside his coffin. It wouldn't be a Deathly Hallow, to help one overcome death, if the object itself could disappear and die with confusion…
Harry had taken this wand from Draco's very hands. Harry's heart was beating quickly as he stared at the wand in disbelief. It would explain how he was acceptable at the Dark Arts. Now that Harry thought about it, it made total sense. This was what defined the difference between him learning something like Legilimency compared to learning the Cruciatus Curse. It had to be simply because of his wand that he was good at everything that wasn't completely psychological at this time. It was taking him months to learn Legilimency… He knew that this could affect him a little bit mater in life, if ever he needed to be stronger mentally, but this wand was the greatest thing he could never hope to obtain through chance and coincidence.
Harry felt a wild happiness come over him. He had an unbeatable wand. He now owned two of the Deathly Hallows, the Elder Wand and the cloak. They were the two most powerful of three objects. Harry felt himself smile for the first time in what felt like forever. As his happiness became even stronger his heart swelled with joy. With this he could do everything he had ever wish to do. He could defeat anyone upon this earth who he wished to defeat, including Voldemort, because in his hands he held –
Harry stopped. In his hands he held Draco Malfoy's wand, made by Ollivander, and bought in Diagon Alley. He felt the smile slide from his face, his previously eager eyes now disappointed in realisation. He didn't have the Elder Wand. The Elder Wand was in Voldemort's hands in 1998, or else in Grindelwald's at the time where Harry rested. Harry only had the ability to use the wand, having disarmed Draco after Draco disarmed Dumbledore. Harry had a useless power.
Disappointment swirled inside Harry, making him feel terribly sorrowful. That one glorious minute of being the master of two Deathly Hallows felt long gone to him. Now that he thought about it, it wasn't as though he could have gotten The Resurrection Stone from Riddle, anyway. The ring was a sacred and divine object to the Dark Lord, his first Horcruxes. The chances of Harry even holding that ring again were very, very slim. Yet it wasn't as though Harry really wanted the stone for what it would do, it was merely that it completed the collection of Hallows. Using it once had been enough for him…
As Harry sat and thought about the Hallows, he felt empty. When he had thought about gaining a second Hallow, he had felt as though he accomplished the first thing for months. He had felt as though there was some hope… Now he felt that he was lacking preparation for the future. As Harry thought about it more, he knew, somehow, that he wanted the Deathly Hallows. He was already supposed to be the master of the Elder Wand… Did that not make it some form of a fate for him? A quest?
If he could, miraculously, obtain power over the other two seemingly impossibly protected Hallows, he could be a master of death. And who on this earth had a better change of defeating Voldemort other than another immortal? Harry could steal the objects from both Dumbledore and Voldemort. Dumbledore would be easy. It was only a year until this time where Dumbledore would defeat Grindelwald. Harry could use the cloak, and simply sneak back into the school if he wanted to. If he could somehow make a replica… If he could find a way to tricking Dumbledore into thinking he still had the wand…
Yet even if Harry stole the wand and left nothing, Dumbledore was likely to go on doing everything he had always done without the use of the Elder Wand. He had defeated the wand in the duel, and it wasn't as though he did that with Expelliarmus. It was supposed to have been one of the most amazing duels ever witnessed, so Harry didn't feel as if it would do much harm for him to steal the wand after the fall of Grindelwald.
Harry would need to think over an exact plan in the time it would take for him to get the chance to steal the wand, but for the moment these ideas satisfied him. Even if it mean he had to trick Dumbledore into believing he still had the unbeatable wand when he was really only performing magic on confidence, Harry didn't care. It would be a sweet success of revenge over the old fool if he could trick him like this…
Taking the ring from Riddle, however, seemed trickier. Harry wondered for a vague second whether he should perhaps leave out the ring and just keep the wand and the cloak… but he wanted the set, to be sure that he was the complete master of death. He wouldn't want to see any of the people who had died again… expect Ron and Hermione, Perhaps. Maybe Ron and Hermione would stay with him forever, if The Resurrection Stone were really his. That would be amazing… like they were alive again…
It would be close to impossible to steal the ring after Riddle really became Voldemort, and decided to hide the ring in the Gaunt House in the future. Harry would be a fool to wait that long. He would have to steal it at a good time… and that depended on how long Harry wanted to be around the Death Eaters.
He wanted to learn about Riddle as much as he could, to understand Voldemort in the future, but he couldn't get very far with that if he stole the stone early. Yet… perhaps if he stole it and was never suspected of stealing it, he could get away, and still be a part of the Death Eaters. He was already an Occlumens by accident, so Riddle reading his mind wasn't a problem.
But there was still the problem of time… If Harry were to steal the ring completely, right now, then Dumbledore wouldn't be able to find it so many years later, at the Gaunt House. Dumbledore wouldn't take it to Hogwarts, kill the Horcrux, injure his hand, have a year to live, tell Snape to kill him instead of having Draco do it and tell Snape that Harry had to die. Then Harry couldn't be here at all… so he would have to be careful. He would have to give the ring back to Voldemort at some point, or else wait until Dumbledore stole it and broke it before he was to take it from himself in the future… past… He would need to think about it very, very carefully, in fact.
With the Elder Wand and the cloak alone, Harry would be insuring himself complete safety until he was to get the ring, to defeat Voldemort. He felt as though this was the answer to how he was supposed to pull this off. This was the reason he was here, to be a master of death. It wasn't a choice between Horcruxes or Hallows, as he had thought so long ago, but rather a balance of both, to obtain the power and knowledge needed to do what he was chosen to do. He would die trying, if he had to… But maybe if he had all of the Deathly Hallows he could even avoid death. Maybe with the Deathly Hallows, everything would end how it was supposed to.
